Elastic securing of rails on timber sleepers



March 26, 1940. U m 2,195,038

ELASTIC SECURING OF RAILS ON TIMBER SLEEPERS Filed May 20, 1936 MaX fidpz ng INVENTOR ATTORNEY,

Patented Mar. 26, 1940 UNITED STATES,

PATENT OFFICE Elastic Rail Spike Corporation, New York, N.-Y., a corporation of Delaware Application May 20, 1936, SerialNo. 80,679 In Germany April 6, 1936 11 Claims. (Cl. 238366) An elastic securing of timber sleepers is known where spikes are driven into holes bored into the sleepers before laying, the spikes consisting of steel spring bands placed .on top of one another.

As these spikes possess a long curved gripping arm which must pass the head of the rail when being driven in, the body of the spike must be driven into the sleeper at a distance from the base of the rail. The head ends then engage close to the edges of the base of the rail with the effect that with the occurrence of a tilting momentum of the rail the spring spikes of the one side of the rail are subjected to a considerably greater strain than the spring spikes of the other side. A further consequence of the great distance is that in thefirst place the tie plates used heretofore are too narrow, and that when hard-wood sleepers without bearing plates are used, it is necessary 'to sink the rails deeply into the sleepers so as to prevent any extension of gauge which leads to the sleepers being greatly weakened. The objectof this invention is to'eliminate all these faults.

The invention consists mainly in a spring spike with a shank and a resilient gripping arm, said shank having its upper portion of ordinary rectangular cross section and its lower portion formed to be rotated in the spike hole, whereby the end of the gripping arm can be brought in a position to rest on the flange oi the rail within the range of a vertical projection of the tail head.

In doing soythe body of the spike may adjoin the base of the rail laterally. With an angular cross section of the spring spikes the body of same is conveniently twisted so as to execute a turn- 5 ing when the spikes are driven into the sleeper. 'Ihe twist may, e. g., be such that when being driven in, the head of the spike is placed to begin with parallelto the rail, and that owing to the twist it performs a turning of 90, whilst driven in, first cutting into the range of the projection below the head of the rail, and standing vertical to the length axis of the rail, when driven in entirely. But with angular cross section for the remainder of the spikes the latter may also a round cross section in this lower part the head of the spikes being placed likewise parallel to the direction 01' the rail to begin with and being turned vertically to the rail only after having left the range of the head of the rail. The spike may also possess a round cross section throughout and be flattened at the head end only.

If the body of the nail is to adjoin the base 'of the rail laterally, the curved gripping arm of the spike must be relatively short. To obtain in spite 55 of this fact a su'fiicient resiliency, it is necessary to reduce the cross section of the gripping arm.

This can be accomplished either by reducing the cross section of the entire spike, or by allowing but part of the spring bands to press on the base of the rail within the'range of the projection of the head of the rail, and shortening the other part accordingly. Ifhe latter method is more convenient, because in that case the shortened part of the spring bands may be directed vertically upwards, which facilitates driving in the spike. This part of the spring bands may be supplied with a head which also facilitates pulling out the spike.- The drawing shows a form of execution of the object of t he invention in Fig, 1 in cross section, and in Fig. 2 in horizontal plan. In Fig. 3 another embodimentofthe invention is represented in cross section. All the forms .of execution may be used with or without bearing plates. I are the spikes forming the fastening means of 'steel spring bands, 2 is the rail, 3 the bearing plate, and 4 are the holes of same.

With the form of execution. of Fig. 1 the body 5 of the rectangular spikes i is twisted by 90. When being driven in, the spikes first take up the position of Figs. 1 and 2 at the left, but whilst being driven in, they are turned owing to the I twist into the position of Figs. 1 and 2 at the right, that is by 90, so that the gripping arm ends of the spring spikes I rest at the end of their motion on the base of rail 2. At the turning the head of the spike cuts into the range of the vertical projection T, of the head of the rail below the latter.

As will be seen, the gripping arms of the spikes then rest on the base of the rail within the range of the vertical projection! of the rail head.

With the form of execution shown in Fig. 3 the left. Once the spring spikes have been driven so far into the sleeper that their gripping arms lie deeper than the head of the rail, they are turned from the position of Fig. 3 at the left into the position of Fig. 3 at the right, which can be effected without any difliculty as the part of the shank being in the sleeper has a circular crossrail web, whilst the other band 10 is shortened accordingly and directed vertically upwards. This form of the spike greatly facilitates its being driven in. The pulling out is facilitated by giving a head 'H to the shortened band l directed vertically upwards. 1

What I claim is:

1'. Resilient fastening means for securing railway rails to wood ties comprising an elastic rail spike having a shank consisting of a plurality of substantially parallel juxtaposed spring metal bands and being adapted to be driven into an ordinary vertical spike hole providedadjacent a rail flange and a gripping arm comprising at least one of said spring metal bands curved sidewardly and having a length exceeding the distance between the spike hole and the vertical plane containing the adjacent vertical surface of the rail head, said shank having its upper portion of ordinary rectangularcross-section and its lower portion formed to be rotated in the spike hole when said arm has passed below the level of the rail head as the spike is being driven into said hole.

2. Resilient fastening means for securing railway railsto wood ties, comprising an elastic rail spike having a shank adapted to be driven into an ordinary vertical spike hole provided adjacent a rail flange and a sidewardly curved resilient gripping arm of a length exceeding the distance between the spike hole and the vertical plane containing the adjacent vertical surface of the rail head, said shank having an upper portion of ordinary rectangular cross-section and a lower portion formed to be rotated in the spike hole when said arm has passed below the level of the rail head as the spike is being driven into said hole.

3. Elastic rail spike for securing railway rails to wood ties, comprising a. shank of a cross-section to fit in an ordinary spike hole, the upper end of said shank separating in a vertical plane through the shank into .two parts, one of said Y parts being curved sidewardly away from said vertical plane and from the other part to form a resilient gripping arm.

4. Elastic rail spike, as claimed in claim 3, in whiclli said second part has a straight upper termma r sition with the outermost spring band on the opposite side of the spike, to form a resilient gripping arm.

7. Elastic rail spike for securing railway rails to wood ties, comprising a straight shank consisting of a plurality of substantially parallel juxtaposed spring metal bands and of a cross-section to fit in an ordinary spike hole, the upper ends i of said spring bands diverging from each other on each side of the vertical and one of said bands being curved to overlie the rail flange.

8. Resilient fastening means for securing railway rails to wood tiesjas claimed in claim 2, in

which said lower portion of said spike shank is of circular cross-section.

9. Resilient fastening means for securing r'ailway rails to wood ties, as claimed in claim 2, in which said lower portion of said spike shank carries a' helix thereon.

l0. Elastic rail spike for securing railway rails to wood ties, comprising a shank of a cross-section to fit in an ordinary spike hole, the upper end of said shank separating in a vertical plane through the shank into two parts, one of said parts being curved sidewardly away from said vertical plane and from the other part to form a resilient gripping arm, and the other of said parts extending upwardly to afford a driving head for the spike.

11. An elastic rail spike as set forth in claim 3,

wherein the spike includes a unitary strip of metal having a fold at the'bottom of the shank and upwardly extending legs, the upper portionof one of said legs providing a driving head for the spike, and the upper portion of the other of said legs extending upwardly and being constructed and arranged to form the resilient gripping arm set 'forth in said claim 3.

MAX RiiPING. 

